History of Chennai Timeline of Chennai History: See Also: and

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History of Chennai and Timeline of Chennai history
Clive House at Fort St. George, Madras said to be the first English settlement in India during 1609
Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, Viceroy of Portuguese India, established the first European settlement in
Chennai with the construction of the port of São Tomé de Meliapor in 1522.
Surrender of the City of Madras in 1746 to de La Bourdonnais, by Jacques François Joseph Swebach
An 18th-century portrait depicting Fort St. George, the first major English settlement in India and the
foundation stone of Chennai
St.Thomas Mount, Chennai
Stone age implements have been found near Pallavaram in Chennai. According to
the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Pallavaram was a megalithic cultural establishment,
and pre-historic communities resided in the settlement. [47]
The region around Chennai has served as an important administrative, military, and economic
centre for many centuries. During the 1st century CE, a poet and weaver
named Thiruvalluvar lived in the town of Mylapore (a neighbourhood of present Chennai).[48] From
the 1st–12th century the region of present Tamil Nadu and parts of South India was ruled by
the Cholas.[49]
The Pallavas of Kanchi built the areas of Mahabalipuram and Pallavaram during the reign
of Mahendravarman I. They also defeated several kingdoms including the Cheras, Cholas
and Pandyas who ruled over the area before their arrival. Sculpted caves and paintings have
been identified from that period.[50] Ancient coins dating to around 500 BCE have also been
unearthed from the city and its surrounding areas. A portion of these findings belonged to
the Vijayanagara Empire, which ruled the region during the medieval period. [51]
The Portuguese first arrived in 1522 and built a port called São Tomé after the Christian
apostle, St. Thomas, who is believed to have preached in the area between 52 and 70 CE. In
1612, the Dutch established themselves near Pulicat, north of Chennai.[52]
On 20 August 1639 Francis Day of the East India Company along with the Nayak of
Kalahasti Damarla Chennappa Nayakudu, travelled to the Chandragiri palace for an audience
with the Vijayanager Emperor Peda Venkata Raya.[53] Day was seeking to obtain a grant for land
on the Coromandel coast on which the Company could build a factory and warehouse for their
trading activities. He was successful in obtaining the lease of a strip of land about 10 kilometres
(6 mi) long and 1.6 km (1 mi) inland in return for a yearly sum of five hundred lakh pagodas.[54][55]
[56]
On 22 August, he secured the land grant from local Nayak (Damarla Venkatadri Nayaka and
his younger brother Aiyappa Nayaka of Poonamallee).[57][58] The region was then formerly a fishing
village known as "Madraspatnam".[51] A year later, the Company built Fort St. George, the first
major English settlement in India,[59] which became the nucleus of the growing colonial city and
urban Chennai, grew around this Fort.[60] Post independence the fort housed the Tamil Nadu
Assembly until the new Secretariat building was opened in 2010, but shortly afterwards it was
again moved back to Fort St. George, due to a change in the Government. [61]
In 1746, Fort St. George and Madras were captured by the French under General La
Bourdonnais, the Governor of Mauritius, who plundered the town and its outlying villages. [52] The
British regained control in 1749 through the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and strengthened the
town's fortress wall to withstand further attacks from the French and Hyder Ali, the Sultan of
Mysore.[62] They resisted a French siege attempt in 1759 under the leadership of Eyre Coote.[63] In
1769 the city was threatened by Mysore and the British were defeated by Hyder Ali, after which
the Treaty of Madras ended the war.[64] By the 18th century, the British had conquered most of the
region around Tamil Nadu and the northern modern–day states of Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka, establishing the Madras Presidency with Madras as the capital.[65]
Map of Madras, ca 1914
Gradually, the city grew into a major naval base and became the central administrative centre for
the British in South India.[66] The city served as the baseline for the Great Trigonometrical Survey
of India started on 10 April 1802.[67] With the advent of railways in India in the 19th century, the
thriving urban centre was connected to other important cities such as Bombay and Calcutta,
promoting increased communication and trade with the hinterland.[68] Sir Arthur Lawley was
Governor of Madras from 1906 to 1911 and promoted modern agriculture, industry, railways,
education, the arts and more democratic governance. [69] The Governor lived in Government
House, Fort St George, and had a country home at Guindy, with access to a golf course, hockey
pitches, riding stables and the Guindy Horse Racing Track.[70][71] In the First World War as Red
Cross Commissioner in Mesopotamia, he looked after the welfare of Indian soldiers. [72] Madras
was the only Indian city to be attacked by the Central Powers during World War I,[73] when an oil
depot was shelled by the German light cruiser SMS Emden on 22 September 1914, as it raided
shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean, causing disruption to shipping. [74]
After India gained its independence in 1947, the city became the capital of Madras State, which
was renamed as Tamil Nadu in 1969.[75] The violent agitations of 1965 against the compulsory
imposition of Hindi and in support of English in India in the state marked a major shift in
the political dynamics of the city and eventually it had a big impact on the whole state. Because
of Madras and its people, English was not abolished as an official language, and remains an
official language of India alongside Hindi. [76] On 17 July 1996, the city known as Madras was
officially renamed Chennai, in line with what was then a nationwide trend to using less Anglicised
names.[77] On 26 December 2004, an Indian Ocean tsunami lashed the shores of Chennai, killing
206 people in Chennai and permanently altering the coastline. [78][79] The 2015 Chennai
Floods submerged major portions of the city, killing 269 people and resulting in damages
of ₹86.4 billion (US$1 billion).[80][81][82]

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